2 Stabbing Victims' Bodies Dumped on Peninsula, Cops Say

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, July 13, 1996

A man and woman whose bodies were found Wednesday miles apart on the Peninsula had been kidnapped in Oakland the night before, police said.

No suspects were in custody as of Thursday afternoon.

A jogger discovered the bloody body of 18-year-old Traci Carter about sunrise Wednesday in a wooded area near Stanford University. A few hours later, the body of a young man was found near bushes at the rear of a business on Twin Dolphin Drive in Redwood Shores.

Oakland police believe they know who the man is, but his identity has not been established, said homicide Lieutenant Ralph Lacer.

Both victims had been stabbed. The killings apparently stem from a robbery Tuesday night at the man's home in the 500 block of Merritt Avenue, Lacer said.

"It appears to us it may have been a robbery attempt. Why they didn't rob them and be on their way . . we don't know," he said.

Lacer declined to say whether witnesses reported the abduction, but said the suspects are four men. Lacer said a rented Pontiac believed to have been used in the abduction was found on Wood Avenue in Oakland at about 6 a.m. Wednesday, about the same time that Carter's body was found in a quiet residential area near the south end of the Stanford campus.

Lacer said blood was found in the car, along with evidence that linked it to the abduction. However, investigators didn't know what happened to the victims until they learned of the grisly discoveries on the Peninsula.

Investigators believe Carter might have been killed elsewhere and her body dumped near Stanford because little blood was found on the ground, but Lacer declined to say where or when investigators think the killings took place.